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Jim Siegel The Columbus Dispatch @phrontpage

A House Republican proposal to block undocumented workers who get hurt on the job from accessing workers compensation benefits sparked a passionate Ohio House debate Wednesday.

Calling it a dangerous, illogical provision, said Rep. Dan Ramos, D-Lorain, said the proposal, part of the Bureau of Workers Compensation budget, will punish injured workers and actually encourage the hiring of undocumented workers by shielding employers from liability for an injury.

Why would we want to actively make it cheaper and easier to hire undocumented workers and then actively make it easier for those people to have unsafe working conditions? said Ramos, the longest-serving Latino state officeholder in Ohio history.

If an unscrupulous employer wants to hire undocumented people, which they shouldnt do, the state of Ohio is telling them through this bill were going to assume you did nothing wrong. And if your undocumented worker hurts themselves, thats their fault.

Despite Democratic objections, the provision remained in the budget bill as it passed the House, 65-29. But its future appears murky in the Senate, where President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, said he hasnt studied the exact language, but he didnt sound like a fan.

Thats a proposal thats been around for a number of years and, as far as Im aware, its never passed the Senate, he said.

Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, said the House is just requiring the bureau to verify an injured workers legal status, the same as is required for unemployment compensation or food stamps.

Seitz, citing statistics from State Legislatures Magazine, said 8 million undocumented immigrants were in the workforce in 2014, especially in construction and farming.

Those are two of the occupations that have a relatively high claims experience under the workers comp system, Seitz said. Every dollar paid in compensation to people here illegally is a dollar that legitimate employers have to pay into the BWC system to pay those benefits, or a dollar that is unavailable for legitimate, hard-working, legal aliens and legal workers.

Seitz noted that an undocumented worker could still sue the employer for medical costs and recovery if he or she can prove the employer knew the worker was not legal.

Will there be such lawsuits or not? I dont know, Seitz said. What I hope is illegal aliens will get the message we dont want to have them in our workforce sucking on our workers comp system.

The idea that undocumented immigrants are going to utilize the court system to prove that they didnt deceive their employer about their illegal status is a fantasy, Democrats have argued.

Thats difficult to do from a detention center, very difficult to do from another country, Ramos said.

Workers compensation is an insurance program, which is a different question from whether someone is documented or not, Obhof said.

The more important question is, if you have employers who are knowingly employing undocumented workers, shouldnt there be consequences there too? Obhof said. Whats the problem were trying to solve here?

When that question was relayed to Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, he responded, We dont supply these kind of benefits to folks that are undocumented aliens in the state.

Rejecting the change means having businesses pay excess premiums to cover people who shouldnt be here in the first place, Seitz said.

But, Ramos argued, proposals like this have a racial component that makes Latinos feel like they cant turn to authorities for help.

I can tell you this will harm the Latinos in this state regardless of immigration status, Ramos said.

I represent Bob and Betty Buckeye, he said, invoking a common phrase around the Statehouse, and I represent Roberto and Isabella Buckeye too.

jsiegel@dispatch.com

@phrontpage

Excerpt from:
Ohio rep doesn't want "illegal aliens...sucking on our workers' comp system" - The Columbus Dispatch